Risk It All (Risqué #2) (28 page)

Blaser took her to the couch and sat down with her, Colt retrieved beer for them all, but the front door opened before he could distribute it. Mattie came in with complete entitlement, which she supposed he had because he did own the building.

‘That is not how I expected that to go down,’ Mattie said. His network was really astounding, how he could know what had happened here already was quite impressive.

‘How do you know anything about it?’ Ruger asked.

‘Who do you think that Marshall was working for?’ Mattie asked, swinging the door closed.

‘You’re telling me that you authorised him to threaten Bri?’ Blaser snarled.

Blaser moved to rise, but she put a hand on his thigh to stall him. ‘I appreciate you protecting Blaser,’ Bri said. ‘How long has Marshall been working for you?’

‘I paid him to keep an eye on you,’ Mattie said. ‘He bribed Rafe’s man to keep me in the loop too. How else would I know how much cash you were handing over to Rafe?’

‘Is that why they were together at the fight night?’ Blaser asked and Mattie nodded.

‘I’m sorry that things happened the way that they did,’ Mattie said to her. ‘But I told Marshall to get Gary to confess, to hand himself in. I wasn’t going to let him leave the country or have Blaser go to jail for Rafe’s murder.’

‘Why show up here now?’ Colt asked. ‘What do you want?’

‘Blaser and I have business to discuss,’ he said, pinning him with a stare. ‘Should we take a walk?’

‘No,’ Blaser said, Bri let him get to his feet now. ‘I’m not keeping secrets from Bri or my brothers, you can take your offer and shove it. My club is legit and it’s going to stay that way. I want to come home to Bri every night and I never want her to worry about living without me again. The best way to support her and look after her is to be here for her.’

‘Are you sure?’ Mattie asked. ‘I’ve proven to you that I can take care of any misunderstandings that arise.’

Getting Gary in jail and saving Blaser’s ass wasn’t Marshall’s idea, it was Mattie’s way of trying to tempt Blaser into working for him.

Mattie Warner couldn’t understand the strength of loyalty that Blaser showed for her. She understood that Mattie was in the highest echelons of organised crime now. Being away for all of these years, she hadn’t comprehended just how the pieces had shifted on the board. Mattie ran the town, nothing happened in criminal circles that Mattie didn’t know about or have some influence over. But he couldn’t influence this, he couldn’t break the bond between those in love or between brothers.

‘Thank you for the offer,’ she said, leaving the couch and tucking herself in at Blaser’s side. ‘But I think we’ll be staying straight, all of us.’

Mattie observed all members of the group, even those she couldn’t see, and as unamused as he appeared, he eventually sighed and turned to leave.

Only after the door clicked shut did the rest of them relax. ‘It always goes to shit when I leave you guys watching the shop,’ Ruger said.

Now that Mattie and Gary were dealt with, Blaser whipped around to glare at his brother. ‘I haven’t heard you apologise to Bri yet.’

‘Hey,’ Bri said, moving in front of Blaser. ‘Ruger wasn’t to blame, how many times do I have to say it.’ Bringing her attention around to Ruger, she bolstered herself to look him in the eye. ‘I suppose that Blaser told you everything.’

‘Bri, I am so sorry,’ he said, traversing to her, he lifted her hand from her side. ‘I had no idea that… I should’ve realised that Victor wouldn’t let it go… I didn’t know about what happened to you until Colt told me and—‘

‘I know, it’s ok. You did the right thing walking away from that gang and I’m proud of you for doing that. I’ve seen today that sometimes it is hard to do the right thing, but it doesn’t make it any less necessary. The only thing you could’ve done to help me was go back to help the traffickers complete their work, how many other women would’ve been tortured if you’d done that? And none of them were trustworthy, once they had me, I don’t believe that they would ever have let me go.’

‘Can you ever forgive me?’

‘I have,’ she said, managing a smile. ‘We’re going to be family, right?’

Blaser slid an arm around her and Colt came over to join their group. ‘That doesn’t mean it’s over,’ Colt said. ‘Ruger’s going to get in touch with the cop who saved you, we’re going to find a way to repay what he did for you.’

‘Jansen,’ she breathed, remembering the night that he had saved her and the other women from their fate.

‘If there’s any of them still alive, I’ll find out,’ Ruger said.

‘I don’t want more bloodshed because of me, and I don’t want you getting yourself into more trouble,’ she said, pinching his arm.

‘You want me to… to give it up?’ Ruger asked.

‘Sounds like a good idea to me,’ Colt said.

‘We should at least thank Jansen,’ Blaser said. ‘I’d like to meet the guy who saved my future.’

‘You did that yourself,’ she said, turning her body into his when he encircled her in his arms. ‘You don’t have to take risks to keep me happy, the status quo is sexy, speaking of which, shouldn’t you be at work?’

‘Work can wait,’ he said, bringing his mouth down to hers.

The sweet taste of his tongue on hers had never been so potent as it was now, all she wanted to do was be swept into the moment of them safe and together. But when she heard a door close, she broke the kiss, expecting to see more people in the room, instead they were alone.

‘Where did they go?’ Bri asked.

‘Away,’ Blaser said, linking their fingers he led her through to the bedroom and began to undress her. ‘All of the drama is over, it’s just us now. I want to show you how thankful I am for that and for what you did today with Gary. I know it couldn’t have been easy to make the decision.’

‘It was much easier than I thought,’ she said, pulling his tee-shirt off over his head. ‘Being where he is now is the best thing for Gary. Out in the world he would’ve hurt more people, which would only have made things worse for him… And seeing him with drugs…’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, rubbing her bare arms. ‘I’m sorry that he broke the promise you made to each other.’

‘You’ll never do that, will you?’ she asked. ‘You promised me that you were going to be good from now on, will you stay clean?’

‘In every sense but one,’ he said, shoving his jeans down to the floor.

Grabbing her hips, he lifted her up and threw her onto the bed. She was still laughing when he landed above her, but the deep kiss filled her with arousal that definitely wasn’t funny. ‘Help me forget,’ she said. ‘When I’m with you all I want to think about is the future.’

‘And it’s a future that I don’t plan to risk,’ he said, slipping a hand to the back of her head, he cradled her skull and brought their mouths together again.

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Turn over for an excerpt from

Fighting Back

Coming soon on Amazon…

For weeks Dax and Ivy hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the Stark family or anyone from Dax’s former life. That had changed this morning. Dax had been talking to Blaser, his new friend and boss, in the parking lot of their apartment complex when Ivy’s hand landed on his abs. He wouldn’t have minded her catching a quick grope, but that wasn’t what caused her to make the connection, she wasn’t even looking at him.

Dax followed her line of sight to see what had her transfixed and he was stunned to see a long black limo on the edge of the parking lot. It held the attention of the group of residents who were all in the parking lot, but Dax knew why that car was here. Such a show of opulence meant only one thing, the Stark family had come to town.

Despising being a part of this show, Dax crossed the apartment complex parking lot in hopes of putting an end to it. Brad was standing inside the open limo door, proud of this garish display. The chauffeur still held open the door so Dax stopped on the other side of it, separating himself from Brad.

‘Care to take a ride?’ Brad asked him without removing his shades.

The group of people he’d left to come over here still hung outside the apartment building he’d been living in with Ivy since he tracked her down here about a month ago. Making a scene wasn’t ever on his agenda, so granting the request with a single nod, the driver moved aside to let Dax follow Brad into the car.

The driver closed the door and Dax chose the seat opposite Brad, with his back to the screen covered driver’s area. Neither of them spoke until the car was moving.

‘You need to come home,’ Brad said.

‘If that’s why you’re here you can drop me off now,’ Dax said. ‘The answer is no.’

‘I didn’t ask. I told you, you’re coming home.’

‘What are you going to do? Drive me to the airport? Sorry, no ID.’

‘Brought a jet, we’re on a private airstrip.’

His first thought was for Ivy who had been with the people he’d left in the parking lot. If he got on a jet with Brad then California was their destination. If he didn’t get on the jet then Brad would just keep on coming back for him until he got his way and Ivy might get caught in the crossfire. Resigning himself to the fact that he would end up doing what Brad asked of him didn’t mean that he was going quietly.

‘You have to give me something,’ Dax said. ‘You and Tryst miss me so bad that you had to chase me down?’ Brad and Trystan Stark were Maurice Stark’s two sons and they had been sort of surrogate brothers to him through the years.

‘Mauri wants to see you, it’s important.’

‘Sure it is, Dax said. ‘I told you I didn’t give a fuck and that hasn’t changed. I’m not interested in Maurice Stark, or you and your brother anymore.’

‘Still with Dune?’

‘It’s Harrow,’ Dax said, correcting Brad’s use of Ivy’s maiden name.

‘Oh that’s right, you married the woman you were supposed to be training for Trystan… You’re lucky he didn’t kill you for that stunt.’

If this was a different environment, Dax might have laughed. ‘He wants to start something, he obviously knows where I am, tell him to come and visit. Ivy might even cook.’

‘You are still with her,’ Brad said. ‘Serg said that you were but I’ve got to say, I didn’t believe it.’

Serg was one of Mauri’s henchmen and a one-time close associate of Dax’s. ‘We’re married,’ Dax said. ‘You think I’d have fucked around on the family if I wasn’t sure she was the only female I wanted?’

‘Do you want us to pick her up? She can join us on the trip.’

‘I haven’t said I’m going anywhere yet,’ he said, clenching his jaw in the process.

Maurice Stark had taught him arrogance; he was a superior sonofabitch who taught all of his sons to be assured. Brad managed it with eminence and authority, Dax did it with aloof indifference, and the youngest, Trystan, used overt garish glitz to show the world that he was better than everyone in it.

Truth be told Dax wasn’t like the other two, he was an unofficially adopted Stark. Mauri had caught Dax picking his pocket as a kid and brought him home to be raised in the servants’ quarters.

At least that was the story Dax had been raised to believe for all of his thirty-three years until Ivy Dune came in and turned his life on its head. After her he started to ask questions of himself, he rebelled against who the Stark’s had conditioned him to be and then Mauri had revealed some truths that Dax would rather not have known.

‘Bruno bet money that you wouldn’t come,’ Brad said. ‘I took the bet knowing that the minute you heard that you’d be leaping onto a plane.’

Finding out that Bruno, Mauri’s contemporary and right-hand man, was his real father and the real reason Mauri had been at the fight night he found Dax at, made him sick to his stomach. Grinding his teeth, he looked out the window for a distraction.

‘Why’d they send you?’ Dax asked, still not tempted to return to the Golden State.

‘Can’t trust Tryst to do anything,’ Brad said. ‘The kid flipped out after you left and went on a binge. Mauri had Serg track him down and bring him back to the mansion. He’s been pretty much locked up since then.’

‘He’ll be loving that,’ Dax muttered. There was only a few months age difference between him and Trystan, but the kid was called that because he still acted like a kid in a candy store as soon as drugs and sex were on offer.

‘Mauri wants you back. We sent Serg out first, he watched you to get the skinny on what you’ve been up to – working security at that strip joint, Risqué? Got your wife answering phones at an auto garage? Come on, you know you’re worth better than this. Come home.’

‘Why? To jump back into enforcing? You want me running the operations again?’

‘No one did it better.’

‘I have a life here, a wife.’

‘We’re not asking you to leave her behind, bring her. You can stay in the mansion together or move into your old place, I know that you haven’t sold it yet.’

‘Been a little busy.’

‘Then it all works out,’ Brad said with open arms. ‘If you’re really planning on living here you’ll need to come back home to sell your apartment. You’ll need to pack up and move, right? You can stay in the mansion while you do that.’

Sitting forward, he propped his elbows on his knees and looked Brad square in his eyes. ‘If you think that I’m going to trust you cock-sucking perverts anywhere near my wife—‘

‘Ivy’s safe,’ Brad sighed. The condescending impatience displayed by Brad retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge was meant to rile Dax and it succeeded. Dax snatched the bottle and tossed it to the floor. The men shared a glare before Brad relented.

‘Mauri has told everyone to accept her as your wife. All the guys know it, so she’s safe.’

Mauri’s word was absolute, but Dax didn’t trust Brad any more than the motherfucker trusted him. ‘Like when you tried to take her from me at the beach house?’ Dax asked, Brad’s bottom lip twitched. ‘You came to that party and tried to get her to leave with you. What was that about?’

‘Good old-fashioned double cross,’ Brad said. ‘Trystan wanted her, you had her, I was curious as to what all the fuss was about… I also had to test how obedient she was, to see how dependent on you she had become.’

‘And were you surprised?’

‘That she refused? No,’ Brad said. ‘But I didn’t see the love, I didn’t see how dependent you’d become on her. You two played a good game.’